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Buy Nokia, Prepare RIM's Grave (Déjà vu Edition)

Written by: Rocco Pendola06/12/12 - 9:56 AM EDT

Tickers in this article:
RIMM NOK

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Compared to many Springsteen fans, I haven't seen very many shows. But, of the 20 or so I attended, I have amazing memories.

For whatever reason, something Bruce said when I saw him play Born in the U.S.A. during the Iraq War stuck with me. Without any fanfare, Bruce introduced the song by saying, and I paraphrase here slightly, I wrote this song about the Vietnam War, I don't want to have to write it again .

While my voice certainly carries nowhere near the same social weight as Springsteen's, I feel as if I am in a similar situation.

On Monday morning, TheStreet's Richard Saintvilus nicely articulated the present state of affairs at Research in Motion (RIMM) :

The saddest part of the situation is that not only do ardent RIMM longs refuse to accept what Wall Street already assumes to be true, even worse, they refuse to accept what the company's own management has been telling them over the past couple of years: It's over.

Early last year, RIM had a small, but fighting chance at life; instead its former co-CEOs and board of directors chose death.

For as bad as things are at Nokia(NOK) -- and they're pretty bad -- RIM makes Nokia look like the Finnish Flash. (A tip of the cap if you catch that hockey reference.) Yet, for some reason, investors treat Nokia much the same way as they do RIM.

Last week, Nokia spiked on bogus rumors that Samsung was going to make a play for it. I didn't blink much as the stock popped and closed above the $3 mark this past Friday. On Monday, after Samsung shot down the story, Nokia gave back everything it gained and then some.

If you have followed RIM's implosion at all, you know that the stock has experienced a whole series of dead cat bounces, largely triggered by M&A speculation.

It's unfortunate that investors perpetuate this pseudo-similarity between the two companies.

While it's anybody's guess what will happen on the ground, Nokia's response to its problems could not be more different from RIM's non-reaction to its implosion.

First, Nokia did not make a better-late-than-never change at the top. Relative to RIM, it moved swiftly, ousting Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in 2010. And, maybe more importantly, Nokia did not hire a dry and boring leader from within like RIM did. Instead, it made the historic move of bringing a non-Fin in as CEO -- Stephen Elop from Microsoft(MSFT) .

Elop is a heavy hitter, having come from Microsoft's business division where he was responsible for Office. Nokia didn't fool around in that regard. And neither did Elop.